Background

When I was seven, my family moved from an urban area to West Barnstable, Cape Cod, where I lived for the remainder of my childhood. Although initially resistant to the change, I soon fell in love with the wild and scraggly parts of our new environment.

My cousin and I would explore the woods, fields, vernal pools and small glacial craters surrounding my yard. We would sneak into the dunes bordering the nearby beaches. Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia, fairy tales, and like stories, we dreamed up complex fantasy realms in the various "territories" of West Barnstable. The magical lens through which I still view and paint nature probably stems from that imaginary world we created as kids. Many of the areas that we deemed as most enchanting have since been developed, I was lucky to have experienced my neighborhood in its less inhabited time.

I grew up in a traveling family. In the summers we would stay with relatives in Austria and Switzerland, and every fall we would visit friends in Vermont. I got to see amazing places and experience some truly epic landscapes, which shaped the imagery and color schemes in my prints and paintings. I think the best feeling for most artists is discovering something so fantastic that their fingers are just itching to capture it. Traveling always does that for me.

biography

Léonie Little-Lex is a Boston-based artist and arts educator. She received both her BFA (2009) and MAT (2012) from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She has exhibited regionally in Salem, Cape Cod, and the Boston area and is an Annex member at Fountain Street Gallery. Her work can be described as both fine art and illustrative, she works in a variety of media with an emphasis on oil painting and pen and ink drawings. She finds inspiration in exploring various environments as she seeks to capture both natural and fantastical elements in her pieces. In addition to making art, Little-Lex is the Studio Coordinator for the Brookline Arts Center.